Appreciation and implementation of the Krachtvoer healthy diet promotion programme for 12- to 14- year-old students of prevocational schools

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Krachtvoer is a school-based healthy diet programme, developed in 2001 and revised in 2007 to meet the needs of particular segments of the target population as well as a wider target group. The main aims of the present process evaluation of the revised programme were to examine student and teacher appreciation of the programme, completeness of and adherence to its implementation, and relations between appreciation and completeness of implementation.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Data were collected among 22 teachers and 1117 students of 13 schools, using student evaluation forms, teacher logbooks, telephone interviews, and classroom observations.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Results indicate favourable levels of teacher and student appreciation for the programme in general and the revised elements. Girls, first-year students and students with more favourable dietary intakes particularly appreciated individual programme elements. Levels of completeness of implementation were high, but several teachers did not adhere to the intended implementation period. Some moderately strong relations were found between teacher appreciation and completeness of implementation scores.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>We conclude that the revisions have resulted in a programme that was appreciated well, also by the extended target group, and was implemented with a high degree of completeness. Teacher appreciation proved potentially important for completeness of implementation. We identified several aspects requiring improvement, indicating the importance of continued programme updates and repeated evaluation.</p

The Effectiveness of the Good Affordable Food Intervention for Adults with Low Socioeconomic Status and Small Incomes

Good Affordable Food (GAF) is a small-group nutrition education intervention for adults with low socioeconomic status and small incomes. It aims to empower participants to save money on groceries and consume healthier diets. This paper reports the short-term and longer-term effects on behavioural determinants and self-reported behavioural changes. A quasi-experimental control group design was applied with a baseline measurement, a post-test immediately after the intervention, and a follow-up measurement after six months. The study included 237 participants (intervention group: n = 131; control group: n = 106) at baseline, 197 at post-test, and 152 at follow-up. Data were collected by telephone, mostly using closed interview questions. Positive short-term and longer-term effects were found for attitude towards the costs of healthy foods, food label use, and the use of liquid butter or oil to prepare hot meals. Short-term intervention effects related to knowledge towards saving money on groceries, self-efficacy towards healthy eating, portion size awareness, and mindful eating. GAF was effective in changing some determinants and behaviours related to cost and food consumption, however, mostly in the short term. Thereby, it is an example of combining pricing and health information in nutrition education that developers of effective nutrition education for low-income groups can build on